NEW YORK, February 27, 2012 – Sunday night’s Academy Awards broadcast delivered strong ratings in many key moviegoing markets, outdelivering the national average by a wide margin, according to a viewing analysis of preliminary data done by the TVB (www.tvb.org), the not-for-profit trade association of America’s commercial broadcast television industry.

The average local market rating topped the national Oscars average by 18% in Households and by 37% in A25-54. Many also topped the emotionally charged Grammy Awards broadcast from earlier this month. And it’s a growing audience, as Household ratings for 37 of the top 56 TV markets improved over last years’ Oscar telecast.

“The ratings that the Oscars generate at a local level really give us a validation of the regionality of the movies,” remarked Scott Roskowski, SVP of Marketing for the TVB. “Eleven of the top twenty markets for the Oscar broadcast were Southeast and Pacific markets, which tend to be the heaviest moviegoing markets.”

The strength of the west coast ratings is notable since the telecast begins at 5:30 Pacific time.

While the key Oscar markets of New York and Los Angeles delivered typically strong audiences to the telecast, additional markets such as West Palm Beach, Minneapolis and San Diego showed higher than anticipated ratings as well. Marketplace demographics may have contributed to this dynamic.

And while Oscar host Billy Crystal implied movie audiences are migrating to portable devices, Roskowski noted that “the size of the local ratings is a testament to the strong following of movies regionally.”

“Even with the evolution of personal screens, moviegoers still crave the immersive Hollywood experience that you can only get from the big screen.”